The function of elite Maya architecture should not always be interpreted literally, for it may also reflect metaphorical and semantic extensions best studied through iconography, hieroglyphic texts, ethnohistory, and ethnography. This holistic approach is employed to help resolve puzzling features of the Cross Group sanctuaries at Palenque, Mexico. The Cross Group likely served as the setting for symbolic sweatbaths, probably involving effigies of supernaturals under the care of Kan Balam, the Palenque ruler who commissioned these structures. This and other arguments situate such information within an understanding of metaphor in Maya architecture.

This article presents stable nitrogen and carbon isotopie analyses of diet at the Maya sites of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro, Belize. This study, which provides important insight into social organization, trade, and subsistence economy for the Postclassic and Historic periods (ca. A.D. 900–1650), also expands our understanding of the distribution of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes within coral reef food webs off coastal Belize. Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro represent the first documented ancient Maya populations whose diet consisted mostly of marine resources with a minimal reliance upon maize. Although these sites do not appear highly stratified, and there are no dietary differences between sexes or status, the inhabitants of Marco Gonzalez incorporated more mainland-terrestrial animals and maize into their diet than the people of San Pedro. This finding supports the postulated roles of these two settlements, where Marco Gonzalez had trade ties to the mainland site of Lamanai and San Pedro was a small fishing village.

Temporal changes in material culture normally have been used by archaeologists to reconstruct the cultural history of an area or site. In the case of the Caribbean, shifts in artifactual style have been used to trace prehistoric migrations and interactions between different cultural groups. Unfortunately, there have been few attempts to explain these changes in terms of the social structures of these cultures. This paper reviews the archaeological evidence for cultural change in eastern Puerto Rico and proposes a model to explain it. Basically, the model suggests that changes in material culture in Puerto Rican prehistory are related to the development of social complexity. Shifts in decoration and types of artifacts are seen as an attempt by elite groups to have greater control over the symbolism represented in the artifacts in order to acquire and maintain their power. These changes are not abrupt, but gradual, as social organization evolves from simple to more complex chiefdoms.

We compare the bone assemblages of Milford 1 (TOB-3) and Golden Grove (TOB-13) in Tobago, West Indies. Milford 1 is a small preceramic occupation (ca. 3000-2800 cal B.P.), whereas Golden Grove is a large ceramic-period village (ca. 1700-900 cal B.P.). Species richness at TOB-13 is greater than at TOB-3, both in marine (67 vs. 39 fishes) and terrestrial (32 vs. 9) taxa. Major shifts in marine exploitation from the preceramic to ceramic periods can be seen in relative abundance of tuna, toadfishes, and in fishes inhabiting mangrove and brackish water environments, and decreases in relative abundance of parrotfish, carnivorous reef fishes, and sea turtles. The abundance of tuna bones at TOB-13 is uniquely high among West Indian archaeological sites. For terrestrial taxa, the difference in species richness exceeds the expected, including decreased specialization on big game (peccaries) at TOB-13, with a greater tendency to hunt reptiles, birds, and mammals of all sizes at TOB-3. Factors underlying the shifts in fishing and hunting may include different collection methods and food preferences of non-Arawakan (preceramic) vs. Arawakan (ceramic) peoples, as well as human-induced declines in populations of peccaries, sea turtles, and selected fish species. Another possible factor is site setting, with the inhabitants of TOB-13 having enhanced access to mangrove habitats.

A long-standing debate in Amazonian archaeology is whether large sites represent contemporaneous communities or palimpsests accrued through multiple reoccupations. Quantitative ceramic seriation has been used to support the latter view. This argument is evaluated in terms of its statistical basis and its assumptions about sources of ceramic variability. On the basis of this evaluation, we conclude that the case for reoccupation, based on seriation, is unconvincing.

It has been claimed that the puquios, a subterranean irrigation system of the Nasca drainage, are a unique Prehispanic innovation. However, documentary evidence indicates that many puquios were constructed and managed by Spaniards. In Iberia such systems were built by Islamic engineers and were extended by Christians after the Moors were expelled in 1492. The Spaniards brought this technology to Mexico and the Andes, beginning in the mid-sixteenth century. They employed it in agriculture, in urban water systems, and to drain mines. This paper presents new evidence on the 21 Andean areas where puquios were constructed and controlled by the Spaniards and evaluates arguments pertaining to the origin of the Nasca puquios.

Alternative models of residential mobility have been proposed to explain the development and spread of Tiwanaku influence across the south central Andes. Within the Osmore drainage, the rich Moquegua Valley has been hypothesized as the site of a significant colonization event (or events) whereby both the natural and human landscape was transformed and integrated into the expansive Tiwanaku state. In this research, the impact of altiplano colonization is inferred from temporal and spatial patterns of genetic variation within and among native groups. Mitochondrial DNA haplogroup frequencies are used as the measure of genetic variation. The haplogroup data are determined for Moquegua Valley archaeological samples (Chen Chen site; A.D. 785-1000) and are compared to published data from 58 other ancient and contemporary native groups. The results support temporal and spatial genetic continuity in the south central Andes for the last 1,000 years. Contemporary Aymara speaking groups are exceptions to this pattern, perhaps because of recent population decline. While the altiplano colonization hypothesis is not rejected, moderate gene flow and relatively large population sizes likely characterized much of south central Andean prehistory regardless of the contribution from Tiwanaku colonization events.

Our recent excavations at the site of Yautepec in the Mexican state of Morelos have uncovered a large set of residential structures from an Aztec city. We excavated seven houses with associated middens, as well as several middens without architecture. In this paper, we briefly review the excavations, describe each house, and summarize the nature of construction materials and methods employed. We compare the Yautepec houses with other known Aztec houses and make some preliminary inferences on the relationship between house size and wealth at the site.

Throughout south-central Patagonia, at the southern tip of South America, artifacts of black obsidian and marine materials are found at sites far from their sources. This distribution is often attributed to the existence of exchange systems among hunter- gatherer groups occupying the region in the late Holocene. In this article, we analyze distance-decay patterns in the frequencies of both items. We explore the use of decay curves for explaining the existence of exchange systems. We also discuss the notion of exchange as a means of obtaining exotic goods. We conclude that there is much intermediate variation that is not explained by the ideal extremes of exchange or mobility (i.e., direct acquisition mode). This variation includes possible visits or other types of social interaction associated with open social formations. We argue that these mechanisms are relevant to understanding the distributional patterns of goods with known source locations recorded in south-central Patagonia.

We report recent excavations undertaken at the residential village Upanca located 1,600 m above sea level in the Nasca region of Peru in the Central Andes. Although fieldwork was initiated to evaluate the site's participation in the Early Nasca craft economy, excavations revealed a long occupation beginning in the Late Archaic (ca. 3000–1800 B.C.) and extending into the Early Intermediate period (ca. A.D. 1–750), with a principal component dating to the Early Nasca period (ca. A.D. 1–450). The Early Nasca component revealed high polychrome consumption, confirming previous assessments of Early Nasca's craft economy, and association with extensive agricultural terracing, suggesting surplus production beginning in the Early Intermediate period.

Patterns of Late/Terminal Formative period (ca. 500 B.C.–A.D. 300) ceramic exchange in Oaxaca are examined through instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). Samples of 453 Late/Terminal Formative period sherds were submitted to the Missouri University Research Reactor for INAA to determine elemental composition. The sherds came from 20 excavated sites and two surveys in the following regions: the Valley of Oaxaca, Mixteca Alta, Mixteca Baja, lower Río Verde Valley, and Cuicatlán Cañada. Selected for the study were vessel fragments from three recognized paste categories: grayware (gris), fine brownware (café fino), and creamware (crema). We also sampled clays and sherds from known sources in four modern pottery-making towns in the Oaxaca Valley. The research adds to the INAA database for Oaxaca by identifying the chemical signatures of six source groupings that we can link to specific regions and, in two cases, to particular source zones within regions. The evidence from chemical composition and typology indicates continuity in resource use and production practices in both Atzompa and Coyotepec from pre-Hispanic into modern times. The data show that the exchange of ceramics in Late/Terminal Formative Oaxaca was multidirectional, with ceramics imported both to and from the Oaxaca Valley.

La Cueva Tixi se ubica en la sierra La Vigilancia, en cercanías de la ciudad de Mar del Plata, Argentina. Las investigaciones arqueológicas permitieron definir una secuencia estratigráfica de cuatro ocupaciones. Seis dataciones (AMS) sobre carbón vegetal, procesadas en la University of Arizona, indican que los cazadores-recolectores utilizaron la cueva durante los últimos 10,000 an̄os. El análisis de los materiales indica variabilidad en el uso de la cueva vinculada a patrones de mobilidad y territorialidad de los cazadores-recolectores pampeanos.

This paper examines household architectural variability within the residential area of Sayil, Yucatán, Mexico. Labor-investment figures for residential architecture are used as a means of categorizing variability. A rank ordering of vault area and per-capita labor investment is achieved and an architectural wealth hierarchy is presented for the residential area of Sayil. This hierarchy is placed in the context of Maya land-tenure systems. It is argued that large, wealthy households may have been “first-founder” families in the Sayil valley and thus were in a position to effectively control and monopolize land and other productive resources, including human labor, for their own economic advantage.

Magnetic, palynological, and paleoecological data indicate that in the Río de la Pasión drainage, one of the most thoroughly investigated areas of the southern Maya lowlands, a refugee population remained in the Laguna Las Pozas basin long after the Classic Maya collapse and the Terminal Classic period, previously identified by archaeologists as eras of near-total regional abandonment. During the Early Postclassic period, ca. A. D. 900 to 1200, agriculturalists colonized and deforested the Laguna Las Pozas basin for agriculture while adjacent, abandoned terrain was undergoing reforestation. After discussing the archaeological utility of magnetic analyses, we conclude that following the Maya collapse, some refugee populations migrated to geographically marginal non-degraded landscapes within the southern lowlands not previously occupied by the Classic Maya.

Previous archaeological studies suggest that terminal Middle Horizon Tumilaca populations (cal A.D. 950–1150) of the middle Moquegua Valley represent direct descendants of earlier Chen Chen-style Tiwankau colonists of the region. This study tests this idea by comparing dentally derived biodistance analyses of Tumilaca, Chen Chen-style, Tiwanaku, and other regional samples. The results indicate that the Tumilaca and Chen Chen-style mortuary samples are similar to one another suggesting that these populations might share an ancestral-descendant relationship. The phenetic relations of the Tumilaca and Chen Chen to other regional samples are also discussed.

This report presents the results to date of a three-year archaeological investigation of the Postclassic and early Spanish Colonial Mixtec City of Yucundaa, PuebloViejo de Teposcolula, Oaxaca. It is the first project in Oaxaca to focus specifically on a major prehispanic city and its dramatic transformation during the first three decades of the colonial period. Given the dearth of conventional historical documentation relating to Yucundaa, the site itself serves as a “primary text,” the major source of information regarding its development and operation. The project attempts to define the major components of the settlement, and to examine each as comprehensively as possible in order to form a coherent view of the city's structure and function. At the conclusion of the third season, the encouraging results serve to demonstrate the utility of a well-planned excavation program that from its inception attempts to examine an entire Postclassic-Colonial settlement and the great transformation occurring there between A.D. 1521 and 1550. The research methods, as well as information and insights derived from the project, will provide stimulus and a useful model for the study of other Mesoamerican urban settlements.

The research reported in this article explores Wari imperial strategies in the upper Nasca Valley of south-central Peru and, building on previous research, documents the flexibility and diversity of those strategies. The focus of these investigations is the site of Pataraya, a small Wari provincial outpost, and its environs. Despite its size, the rectangular enclosure at Pataraya is well planned and conforms to the canons of Wari state architecture documented at other Wari provincial sites. The site was founded early in the Middle Horizon (A.D. 650-1000) and then abandoned during the collapse of the Wari system. Extensive excavation at this condensed version of the Wari building tradition—over 60 percent—uncovered a pattern of spatially segregated use and access within the enclosure. Activities were relegated to specific patio groups with little replication of function, and the sectors themselves were connected by an astonishingly complex system of narrow corridors. The site appears to have been involved in the transfer of coastal products, especially cotton, to the sierra along an ancient road that is also associated with another much larger Wari compound and with the reorganization of an older local site near modern-day Uchuymarca, both of which were also documented during the project.

The San Pedro de Atacama oases have been permanently occupied since ca. 2500 B.P. and over this time developed a rich culture that was intertwined with social developments in the south-central Andes. However, despite decades of archaeological research, the region still lacks a strong chronological framework based on absolute dates. Here we present 53 new AMS 14C dates from osteological remains from San Pedro de Atacama, in order to contribute to an understanding of the Atacameño cultural sequence. These dates suggest that some cemeteries were occupied for long periods, frequently transcending cultural phases, and that in fact a number of cemeteries within the same ayllu were in use concurrently. We also show that, not surprisingly, population displacement through time primarily follows oscillations in the sources of water. The new information presented here suggests that future work in the region should emphasize detailed analyses that consider intra-ayllu variability, given that diversity within periods is masked by the uniform use of cultural phases to describe human development.

Archaeologists frequently assume that when cultures interact with each other the most complex partner dominates the transactions. We propose that this is a misleadingly simple view of a complex process. A framework for modeling intersocietal interaction and understanding its sociopolitical consequences is outlined here. This theoretical structure calls attention to who is actually involved in the interaction process, how these transactions are carried out, and what the goals of the contact partners are. The complex material patterns from two neighboring areas of Late Classic (A. D. 600-950) southeast Mesoamerica are then examined using the proposed model to see what insights into ancient interaction processes it can provide.

Ethnographic observations of floor formation in an occupied and an abandoned Achuar jea dwelling structure are combined with contemporary taphonomic studies of swept and trampled surfaces. These studies suggest that refuse accumulation and incorporation are markedly different in food-preparation areas with ash deposits around fixed hearth features when compared to regularly trampled traffic areas of domestic earthen house floors. These points are examined in the horizontal and vertical analysis of highly fragmented bone remains in an Early Formative domestic house floor at the site of Real Alto, in the coastal lowlands of southwestern Ecuador. The food-preparation area of the Structure 1 house floor contained high concentrations of bone specimens characterized by their large size (over 25 mm), broad surface area, low bulk density, and greater total weight, vertically distributed throughout the ash matrix. The traffic area contained bone specimens characterized by their small size (under 25 mm), narrow surface area, high bulk density, and lower total weight, distributed unevenly in vertical profile. The horizontal distribution of fish bone only partially followed the observed pattern, as a proportionately greater amount of large fish bone was located in the traffic area. This analysis demonstrates the potential utility of bone refuse as a sensitive and reliable taphonomic indicator for inferential arguments regarding house-floor deposition.